How Far Can "Religious Freedom" Be Carried

There is much discussion of the refusal by a female actor to portray a lesbian. She was dismissed from the performing company. Actors commonly don't get parts they might prefer. If they are in an acting company the management choses parts. She sued and the lawsuit was tossed before it began.

It is a mystery why religious people go into careers where it is almost inevitable they will be asked to perform tasks that violate their faith. If you are a truck driver and had a religious hang up with contraception it seems absurd you could refuse to haul a load because it included contraceptives. Each person's religious hang up cannot become the law of the land if our country is to function. Yet, I suppose we have or will see such demands. 

It would be in the national interest to make a list of religious taboos the are practiced in the U.S. Every reader knows a few. I don't think any of us knows them all.

Think first of all those in the field of medicine and reproductive rights. Another part of the list is food. Goodness, this list is long. Pork is one taboo but meat of all kinds is another. How it is prepared adds complications. "Mine has to be kosher." Along with food are alcoholic beverages. 

Then there is entertainment. "Hollywood is a sinful place." Many religious taboos there are violated daily including the link actor who will not take a lesbian part. There is good music and evil music, good dancing and bad, card playing and gambling. 

All of this has to do with the general concept of sin. So many people and groups have such different ideas about sin. If every person refused to do some task that put him in proximity of his particular sin it will be hard to buy goods and services and hard for one to provide them. As soon as one group decides it will not provide to others because of sin that group will find it difficult to buy what it needs because of someone else's version.  

Just a day or so ago a critic of this blog posted on one of the other sites where it appears that atheists are selfish, they want lives of pleasure but with no consequences. What irony. Christianity is rife with groups who want to lead self-indulgent lives of superiority by not selling abortion pills and refusing to make cakes for gay couples. 

Sometimes the most peculiar ideas find their way into large groups.